Belles World

Such a long time

2010-01-30T12:46:00.001+13:00

Wow is a long time since I have been in here thats for sure.
I guess a few other things took over in my life and found a different range of sites to visit and spend time at.

Oh well.

A visit with Rose

2007-02-14T18:44:00.000+13:00

I have meet RoseLNZ before but tonight I visited with her at a neighbours house just about half a mile up the road from where we live. I also meet her husband and got to see this car they imported from Alaska.

Thats Marc (with a "C") and me and Rose standing by the corvette.

A busy New Year

2007-01-09T12:36:00.000+13:00

Well I have neglected this blog of mine for a few weeks haven't I now.

Lets see now what have I been up to hummmmmmmm.

Ok well there was Christmas, oh I got that down there in the last post didn't I. I never did get any photos of our actual Christmas event this year as it was pretty much a non event with how things where around here but we did have a nice day non the less and I enjoyed the camping trip, other than the sandflies. Nick actually has video of me cooking breakfast with his bee vail on to keep the sandflies off my face while I was cooking.

I got to go to Christchurch again between Christmas and New Year for the x-ray and scan I had to have on my shoulder. I also got to get a refund for the toy of Marc's that was missing the part on Christmas day and that resulted in me then being able to purchase it $35 cheaper at a different store :)

The results of my shoulder pain is this 'Impingement Syndrome.'

Next there was New Years Eve which may as well have been the middle of winter here as it was so so cold and we had to light the fire. We had all the young people from our kids youth group around to see the New Year in at our house. I made dips and savouries etc and they also bought heaps of chocolate type food, chrisps and juice drinks which we are still benifiting from. They all watched some videos that some had made themselves and then they played "Buzz" which is a playstation gameshow quiz type thingy.

On Jan 3rd it was our 20th wedding anniversary. I bought us a new lounge suite which we desperatly have needed since our old one has been slowly falling apart for about the last 5 years and finally bottomed out (had to fix it) not so long ago. The old one had been bought 20 years ago with money we got in lieu of wedding gifts. This new one is a nice dark brown leather and I spotted it at the local funiture store for half price. We also went out to the local posh resturaunt where Jesse works and had him wait on us for our anniversary dinner.

Since then I have been setting up a gallery at deviantART. A friend paid for a sub for me for my birthday which is not till later this month but anyway I guess he didn't want to risk forgetting it, wish move on his part ;) Anyway with the sub I have been able to set the CSS code up for the journal to how I want it to look and has been a great learning curve for me with this being my first attempt at writting the code myself. All I did here with the blog CSS was to insert my own stuff as and where I needed it so doesn't count really as my first.

I also had a go at completing a vector portrait illustration of David Bowie as Jareth. This I did really to just prove to myself that I can do this sort of work but I may very well do a bit more of this yet.

Just about at Christmas time I ordered 3 books from Amazon.com for myself for my birthday. They where meant to arrive closer to my birthday according to Amazon's EDD but they all arrived this morning ..... yahhhhhhhhhhh .... I love new books.
The books are .....

Collage Unleashed by Tracie Bautista. I just love the way this book is layed out and it comes with permission to use graphic provided in it along with a few templates to photocopy etc.
Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods & Karen Dinino. I have been wanting this book for sometime but was to expensive to buy in the shop where I found in here in NZ. It was actually cheaper to buy all these books from Amazon and have them shipped than to buy them in NZ
Digital Illustration by Lawrence Zeegen. This has some amazing grungy style 60s - 70s style commercial artwork in it along with some step by step illustrations of how several things where done using Photoshop. I have got a promise from Nick that he will get me Photoshop for my birthday, at academic prices due to me being a teacher of course ;)

I have also gottem my sewing machine out in the last couple of weeks and have it set up in my bedroom and beleive it or not I have actually had a play on it. Its not intended that I actually make any garments on this thing but I was hoping to play with some creative textiles since Nick gave me that book called "Stitch" for Christmas.

I have also managed to read a book called "The Time Travellers Wife". A great read if anyone is looking for something to relax with. If anyone has ever meet someone at the wrong stage or point in their life and found themselves day dreaming about what could or might have been then you will understand how the author might have come up with this story.

With not being at school I have also managed to keep the house resonably tidy, more so than usual and I have actully been making the bed every day and putting my clothes away off the floor .... beleive me when I say this is a major achievement for me

Before the end of our summer holidays I need to sort out Marc's school uniform for when he starts school at the end of Feb and I have to do a school books purchase trip to the city as well. I was also hoping to do a seperate craft gallery and buying trip of my own to the city sometime.

Apart from the weather here I am actually having a good summer break as usually I am inclinded to get depressed if I'm not busy enough. Negativeness from close friends can however have quite a marked effect on my state of mind as well. Hopefully the business will over-ride any effects that anything like this might have.

Ok this is long -- It won't let me put any pics in right now either so will put them in with an edit later.

Our Christmas

2006-12-26T19:22:00.000+13:00

Some of you will know of the hassels that we had with the usual family gathering that we expected to have here this year and how that was all messed up.

Anyway we ended up having Christmas breakfast with my mum and dad and my sister and her hubby and baby. We did the gift giving and opening thing after breakfast. Marc's major gift that we got him has to go back to the store cause it has a part missing which makes it useless. Thankfully I still have the docket and should be able to get the whole thing replaced. Fortuntly I had bought Marc something else as well so that he didn't miss out completely on Christmas morning.

At around 2pm we packed up the kids and our sleeping bags and the extra food from around the house that I had gotten in for the family Christmas that didn't happen and we went bush. Well we went over to the remote valley where we get our honey crop from and camped out for the night.

Jesse our eldest has his gun licence and so the two older boys had fun with some pest iradication. There are wild goats which are classified as pests and they got three of them. There is a plague of rabbits and I'm sorry to those that might keep rabbits as pets but when they are in an enviornment that is not their own they can cause a lot of trouble for the farming and other activities so ....... they popped off any that they could find. Possums are also a pest there cause they eat our native bush and there are also the odd wild cat that pray on our native birds. They also shot a wild pig but it ran to ground in a thick bit of briar and so they where not able to retrieve it. They also tried their hand at eeling and used some of the goat as bait.

We also had the chance to check out how the blue borage is flowering for the year and it looks like we might get a bumper crop this year as the hill sides in places are just so blue with flowers.

We got home about 3.30pm on Boxing Day (26th) all feeling very tired from the jiggling and the fact that Jesse's snorting and sleep talking kept us awake. We did take Marc with us as well but for some reason he is not in many of the photos.

Click on the groups of photos to see them larger. Notice the blue on the hillsides and the river flats. The Blue borage has not been this blue in a good few year and if we get the warm weather now it should mean we have a good season and a good crop.

Sticky ATC's

2006-12-19T17:05:00.000+13:00

Ok so Jam is sticky hence the sticky ATC's.

At digitalartquirks where I hang out a lot these days we got into doing a collaborative team ATC effort with the following results for the group that I was in.

Each of us started an ATC card (Artist Trading Card) and then passed it to the next person in our group to work on. They in tern then passed it onto the next person in our group of three to finish.

The theme of our jam session was "Down the Rabbit Hole" which to me means "Alice In Wonderland" and anything that we can glean from this story. We all had to use free stock images or things that we had got as freebies or giveaways although if we wanted to we could have collaborated and found out if our team members had purchased the same things as us as well if we wished.

I got a bit of track with the last one I did but hey that makes it more quirky doesn't it ;)

These are our results -- if you click on each one you will see it larger -- I think thats how blogger works with these.

Awesome View Check This Out

2006-12-18T14:46:00.000+13:00

This photo was taken on the weekend by NASA. It shows a space walk happening right over New Zealand where we live. Unfortunatly we are right under the cloud but I have circled where we are.

Click on the picture to see the full view at NASA's site.

End Year Activities

2006-12-17T19:08:00.000+13:00

Those of you that check with my blog regularly will remember that I intended to do the "Art in response to 60's music thing with my year 10 (grade 9) students as an end of year activity.

It was a lot of fun, well for most anyway. The boys in the class didn't cope to well with it so I got them doing some cleaning jobs, at their suggestion.

This here is a peice of work that was completed -- with a little help from moi.

School is over now and it is meant to be summer here for us. Notice I say meant to be cause we have been having really crap weather and more rain and cold than sunshine.

We had our end of year event with our kids Sunday School lastnight and it has been the first year Marc has been going. He was involved in several items in which he was so so cute.

He played the part of Zacceus that climbed the tree and he also was one of the sunflowers in the story "The Sower went forth to sow"

He did have another one that he was to shy to do. A song he has actually learned at daycare about the wise man who built his house on the rock. Nevermind maybe next year.

Here is our cutie little sunflower.

If anyone is interested I have set up a gallery at Deviantart. I am putting in it a lot of my traditional artwork that is not digital or scrapbook related. Some of it you might recognise as some I have scanned and used with my digital work. Anyway if your interested in seeing my work then here is the link. There is also a perminant link over to the right as well.

Fairytale War of the Witches

2006-12-16T10:44:00.000+13:00

I have been busy this week and meant to post this earlier but anyway ......

Last weekend there was our little towns Christmas street part at the village green. It was the first year that this has been done and along with the singing of Christmas carols and Santa's visit there was a fairytale character dress up competition as a part of this event.

This event was meant to be held on Saturday evening but last Saturday the weather was so horrible with rain and wind off and on most of the day that it was put off till the Sunday evening. Sunday was sunny but it did get cold in the evening and some people got changed out of their outfits or took their little ones home before we got to present them with their prizes. However in spite of this we did manage to pick out the best outfits with some help from the photos that had been taken.

Myself along with another woman and Andrew Spencer, a local photographer where asked to do the judging of the fairytale characters and yours truely was elected to get up on stage with the mayor to present the prizes.

The catagories we judges where

Best Female -- this was a fight between two witchs -- not that they where aware of it lol with the old hag with the broomstick winning.
Best Male -- For this we chose a Knight from the tales of Robyn Hood.
Best Couple -- We had difficulty with this one as we where unsure of weather it was meant to be a fairytale couple or a coupld as in like a married couple etc and as we struggled to identify any fairytale characters we went with a couple that had gotten Little Red Riding Hood and Fred Flintstone together -- I wonder what Wilma was thinking ;)
Best Boy -- Was a Red Dragon made out of painted cardboard boxes.
Best Girl -- Was a Pink Fiary Riding a Pink and White Unicorn
Most Original -- Was a boy dressed as one of the Characters from "The Pirates of the Carribian" movie. The Character that looked like his face was an octopus, I don't know the name, maybe someone can tell me ;)

And I also had to judge the Best Fairytale Hair for my sister, the hairdresser, who couldn't make it to the event on the Sunday evening. This was won by a local woman in a Medievle Princess outfit with braided hair -- she maybe was Repunzel I'm not sure.

It was a very cold evening and hopefully next year it will be warmer and there will be more people that will get into the spirit of the event.

Check here for some shots of the event.

If anyone is interested in seeing more of the pictures from this even and you have my email address then let me know and I will give you a link to see them. Andrew does not have everything visible on his blog or at his website.

The count down and more love stuff

2006-12-06T17:53:00.000+13:00

Well we are on the big countdown now to the end of our school year here in New Zealand.

For the first year we are on a new system which actually saw us start later back in Feb and so now we finish later and closer to Christmas than ever before.

I have 9 maybe 7 lessons left for the year and our prize giving ceremony and finally a teachers only celebration day and Christmas party.

I have been working with my year 10 (grade 9) class on some 60's music inspired artwork as a way to chill a bit at the end of the school year. It has been nice to have some music playing while we work and I have been able to relax a bit as well cause it is not an assessment activity.

I gave them all a selection of phrases that they could build a doodle around.

FEEL THE LOVE

PEACE MAN

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

FLOWER POWER &

GROOVY BABY

I have been doing the same work with them and have come up with this new FEEL THE LOVE doodle. I did it with black pen but have altered the colours here and it is also changed to a negative of the original.

Sick Day & School Visits

2006-12-01T12:17:00.000+13:00

I woke up very early this morning feeling really ill and needed to not be to far away from the bathroom for the first part of today. Not feeling to bad now but the plus is it got me outta the one class I had today --- ref: to the post below ;)

I owe them nothing and I have no guilt what so ever in being home sick today. I am sick too no matter what anyone else thinks. Something I ate has upset my tummy and then on top of that I had a hot axiety attack ... was all hot one min and then went really cold and shivery and dizzy.

2 more weeks of school and we have our summer school holidays with Christmas and New Year in amongst all that.

Oh I didn't mention either ... Marc had his first school visit on Wed. morning. I was able to take him cause they swapped classes around at my school for the day which meant I had no actual teaching time that day. I think he will be fine when he starts next year but he was quite clingy for this first visit. It was a huge lot to take in tho and the class size gets pretty big near the end of the school year. At the start of next year when he has two more weeks of visits there will only be like 10 in the class, at the moment there are 25 or more. He starts school two weeks after the start of our new school year in 2007.

Selfrighteous, Know-it-all, little Prima Donna's

2006-11-30T16:45:00.000+13:00

I'm so so tired of having to put up with the likes of these during the course of my day job.
Unstable teenage estrogen levels combined with my current level as well is just not a good mix at all. I think I would be better off teaching in a boys school.

Maybe this is why God only gave me boys .... he would definitly know if I was not made to cope with girls and heaven help me if I ever had a girl like me ..... or like some of the little madam's I gotta deal with at school.

Ya ever see the movie "Mean Girls" with Lindsay Lohan in it? Well if you have then I got a bunch of girls like that to deal with only a tad younger than in the movie .... they know this movie very well too.

Roll on the school holidays.

Really mean bees & A new name.

2006-11-25T22:39:00.000+13:00

Ok well my bitching for the day is done ..... onto more edifying stuff.

My boys love their sport and play rugby here in New Zealand in the winter months. In the summer there is a new sport that has grown out of a need to keep fit for rugby till the next season and this sport is called "Touch Rugby" It is a very social game and as it is not the rough game that full on rugby is both genders are able to play on the same teams.

This year we, that is my husbands business, Mountainhoney Kaikoura Ltd, have decided to sponsor our boys team and so we have developed a logo for the team and have had team jerseys specially made and embroidered with this logo and our company logo.

I don't think I have ever seen my husband do so much ironing in one go before today LOL. We got the team jerseys yesterday and they needed a wash before they get used. The wash then required them to be ironed LOL. Anyway ....... It wouldn't be right to have these any other colour than this. Oh and the name of the team ....... oh and by the way our company produces honey for export ....... you can check out our website and where to purchase it at the link in our name up there somewhere ^^^^^

My eldest son -- 17 years old -- designed this logo and I did the vector work for it.

The "KILLABEEZ" touch rugby jerseys.

Ok now the nameing part of this post. I decided to join in the naming ceremony/game over at DigitalArtQuirks where I hang out a lot and have started today by getting my first part of the name done. I got to choose this first name and the person ahead of me on the list gets to choose my second name once they have gotten to know me a bit. This design is what I came up with for my first name which is ECLECTIC. When the name is complete Happyrobyn makes a blinky with our name on it for us to use where ever we go in cyberspace. Can't wait to find out what my last name will be.

Hummmmmmm Bitch Time I guess

2006-11-25T16:31:00.000+13:00

Private messaging ----- you know that thing that is at most forums that allows members to ask managers and other members in private things that don't really need to be in the main forum threads.

I am right now wondering what the point of this option is if ones messages get ignored.
Maybe one might get a response if one asks the question more publically and draws attention to the issue in question.

I doubt this will even be noticed here cause I am not important enough in the greater scheme of things --- making money! I'm just one of those little pains in the ass that brings too many insigificant, unimportant, not worth dealing with issues to the attention of the powers that be, and all because I am on dial up and I'm not worth the effort.

Oh and this is my blog so I can say what I damn well like!

Using my doodle art

2006-11-22T16:56:00.000+13:00

Lastnight after I finished the black and white version of my doodle I went on to create this scrapbook layout using the coloured one I did earlier. I still intend doing the final one in colour as well but it will need a bit more tidying up before it will be as I want it for that. But anyway this is the layout I ended up with.

It is of my uncle Archie. He is one of my father's older brothers. This particular uncle was always a part of my life as I was growing up in the 60's and 70's as he had a property right next door to us and as he was single he spent a lot of time at our house.

He was into alternative things way back before they where fashionable. Things like organic food and alternative cures for this and that. He chose to open his property up to others who thought and wanted to live in a similar way to how he thought and so next door there grew a "Commune"

He adamantly stuck to his idea that it was not a commune but everyone else refered to it as such and although we where not a part of it the locals still thought that we where. My mum and dad did have similar organic and health views as well but they had their spiritual beliefs that Archie did not share.

I grew up with being familiar with babies being born in huts on the property and gardening done in the buff and horse drawn wagons for transportation.

Uncle Archie always has had a special place in my heart and still does. He is exactly 40 years older than me which puts him at 85 now. He is still alive and we see him several times a year. He currently lives on a yacht that is moored somewhere in the norther parts of the south island of New Zealand.

I am planning on doing a unit on work something like this with my year 10 students at school next week. I am going to let them listen to some music from this era and let them loose with their imaginations and creativity and mixtures of media and let them create what ever the music inspires in them. Should be a real fun way to end the year for them, for us all. I'm really looking forward to it.

I plan on working in with the Drama department next year with a similar unit and they will use the artwork created to collarg together with moving dance images that the students will film and to put it to the music and make their own music videos. I'm really looking forward to it and even just the prospect of it has lifted my spirits a bit. :)

Finally

2006-11-21T20:57:00.000+13:00

My kids suggested it needed some words and someone at work suggested "PEACE" so I added the peace symbol and the phrase "Feel the Love" at the bottom. Did the sun and tidied up some of the edges by sqaring it off on the top and down the sides and letting it tumble off the bottom space.

My kids are saying I should get it printed on a t-shirt. Will work on the colour version a bit more and then look into how I can get it printed on a t-shirt.

Doodle Updates

2006-11-20T22:29:00.000+13:00

I have gotten this far with the black and white and then decided to fill the shapes with colour

Boring Meetings & Rollercoasters

2006-11-19T10:15:00.000+13:00

We had a nice quiet day at school on Friday. We had a teachers only day and all the students stayed home for the day. Sometimes we (teachers) feel that it would be a great job if the kids stayed at home --- yeah yeah ok so we know -- without them we wouldn't have a job --- but anyway it was such a nice quiet day almost to the point of being boring in some parts of it. We have a new curriculum document put out by our education department yet again. For some reason they keep wanting to reinvent the wheel but anyway we had the day discussing aspects of this document and how it will be implemented by our school etc etc.
In some of the discussion I took to doodling on the handout I had been given -- well its either doodle or fall asleep.

Anyway what I doodled was actually not to bad so I scanned it when I got home and have been working all weekend on a vector version of it in CorelDraw and so far this is what I have come up with. Have printed out what I have done so far and intend adding some more to it and then re-scanning it and doing more vector work -- maybe will look at colouring it as well.

The rollercoaster was the emotional highs and lows of attending another baptisim at our church on Friday night. We do adult baptisims rather than infant ones. But anyway I don't think I want to go into that anymore right now.

A plus for Friday was I got so ingrossed in my doodle vector work when I got home that I forgot I had a follow up Doctors appointment -- the plus being I would have to be feeling better if I forgot it due to being ingrossed in something. Anyway the doctor is happy for me to try the St Johns Wart and the bloods where all in his oppinon "boring" which is a good thing and he is not wanting to see me again for the time being anyway.

______________________________________________

An update on the progress of my vector doodle

Ice Bergs

2006-11-15T22:46:00.000+13:00

Antartica is moving north.

Check this out.

I wonder if they will last till they get off our shore here where we are.
Instead of Whale Watching they will be doing trips out to do Ice Berg Watch.

Friendships

2006-11-15T16:27:00.000+13:00

Ever since we got back from our trip to the US I have been struggling with the concept of friendship and what that exactly entails.

Issues such as the varying degrees of effort that different individuals put into so called frienships keep going through my mind.

They say "a friend in need is a friend indeed" but what about when that need is turned around and on the other foot and but that shoulder or support of what ever sort is not reciprocated?

Its hard work maintaining a friendship and when the hard work all seems to be the effort of one party then the trueness of the friendship has to come into question.

My concept of frienship is a sharing, caring, doing for eachother when in need and including eachother in what one is doing or feeling at the time.

I guess there are those that can only cope with being "in need" but then can't cope with the being needed part and don't know what to say or do so they opt out completely and choose to do or say nothing at all.

And then there are the other sort of friends that over time gain your confidence and then stab you in the back when you least expect it.

Long distance friendships are the hardest off all. Sometimes I wish I never had discovered this thing called the internet.

Three Lovely Ladies

2006-11-13T17:49:00.000+13:00

Just decided to offer these 3 Vintage Ladie Outlines to anyone that would be interested in using them at all. They are in png format on transparencies. You can paint them our fill them with papers to cloth them to suit your layout.

See the post below and this one HERE for what I have done with outlines such as this. These outlines where inspired by artwork by Deanna Cheuk

I would really love to see how people use them so please do come back and give me a link to see what you have done.

Thanks Helen.

Click on the Image to download the zip file with the 3 png files in it.

Weekend Activities

2006-11-13T16:56:00.000+13:00

I'm feeling a little better, and thank you to those that have personally emailed me. I have tried to get outside a bit more especially when the sun is shinning and its warm.

We had my brothers eldest home for the weekend to celebrate his 21st which is actually on Nov 14th. His coming home was an inactment of the prodigal son almost literally as he left home at 17 under a cloud of difficulties getting on with parents, tough love etc having been applied and so he had gone to live nearer to his maternal family roots. Last Christmas he came home but hardly surfaced the whole time due to over indulgence of one chemical or another. This recent homecoming was special as in the last 6 months he has turned his life around and had made a major life altering decission to be baptised into our church which he has been bought up learning and knowing off all his life. The proverbial fatted calf was killed and we had a great extended family get-together for his birthday on Saturday night.

Our eldest has only till Thursday this week left at school for his year 12 year and then is on study leave for exams.

I have managed to do some layouts in the last couple of days but pretty much everything else is just to much to do right now. I seem to get stuck real easy with my ideas right now and so things sit not finished for a long time.

Did this one just today. It is of my mum (right) and her elder sister, my aunty Rita (left) Aunty Rita's actual first name is Helen but has always gone by her second name. All the papers and elements I have used are from Fiddlette's Fabulous Flea Market Kit from the Apprentice Kits at SA. The line drawing is a tracing done in CorelPainter lX and is once again inspired by Deanna Cheuk's illustration style.

Don't anybody ever again

2006-11-08T18:42:00.000+13:00

Don't anybody ever again tell me to go get a chill pill presciption from the Dr.

Ok so I was not feeling so crash hot and was a bit down but I sure as hell can handle that better than I can handle how I have felt the last couple of days and this morning in particular. I am not taking any more of them.

Anybody else have bad reactions to Fuoxetine?

I woke at around 5am this morning with sweats, horrible horrible nausea and the worst case of axiety I have ever experienced, almost to the point of passing out. I had already been feeling slightly nauscious leading up to this morning and yesterday at work I had an axiety attack as well and had to leave class. I got to work this morning -- not sure how cause I had the shakes so bad by then but then just broke down and couldn't even go to my first class. I AM NOT TAKING ANYMORE or any alternative the Dr has to offer either.

I would sooner throw this computer out a window or cut of my arm before I want to ever feel like I did this morning again.

Don't anybody ever try and tell me to take something for how I'm feeling again.

Ok well that sucks

2006-11-05T17:43:00.000+13:00

I thought that counter was free but was only a 14 day trail then they let you have only the first part free and its really cruddy.

Not my best but ...

2006-11-03T00:00:00.000+13:00

I'm at least trying to find some enthusiasm for something. I might do more work on it yet as well. Not comepletely happy with it but wanted to post something tonight --- oops sorry morning.

Inspiration gained from Deanna Cheuk's illustrations and women used are Wacom tracings of some vintage women from Art-e-zine. Flowers are my own drawings that I have scanned. Font is HeartlandRegular. Texture in background is from a photo of running rust on a metal drum that I found around here.

I used CorelPainter IX to do the faces and the rest has been done in PSP9

Am going to the Dr tomorrow for a number of things.

I have a new little gadget

2006-10-23T10:49:00.000+13:00

I have a new little gadget on my blog. Its down on the side panel at the bottom and lets me know how many visitors are here right now. It also lets me know how many and where in the world you are with a little flag from your country and when one points to the flag it even throws up a map.

Its interesting to see where visitors to ones blog are at and even more interesting to see how many actually visit and don't leave a hello or anything ;) Although spamming and just asking for a visit and comment to be left on your blog is not really cool.

If you call by try and say something -- preferably positive and maybe what it was that interested you enough to actually look at my blog even :)

If you are into art of some sort and that is what bought you to my blog then I have no problem with you leaving a link to yours and I will more than likely come and have a look, but just to leave a link for the sake of it --- NOT COOL at all.

I take it all back

2006-10-20T20:05:00.000+13:00

Going back to school was not it was all cracked up to be. :S At the end of my first week I lost the plot entirely and threw a major hissy fit in the staff room at school. I bet they never knew I had those words in my vocabulary. I don't often get so angry at a collegue. But anyway it was just kinda the last in a long list of things that where getting to me. Consulting with Citizens Advice, Employment Relations Authority, and a Lawer where amongst the things that where involved and on another front I probably should be laying a complaint with the police as well re: some harrasement that is going on of both me and our middle boy in and out of school.

Now this week I have come down with a cold accompanied by conjunctiveitis and then on top of that one of the most painful crampy months on record all at the same time. Coughing doubles me up right now and so I took the day off.

On a bright note it is a long weekend, my day off just made it even longer :) It is Labour weekend here and even better --- the two eldest boys have gone half the length of our country away on a church youth camp -- even better still is that they both wanted to go so much that they even paid for it all themselves. There are 9 of them gone in total. Yahhhh I get a repreive from the teenage angst around here for 3 nights.

My sister and her hubby both turn 40 this year. Her hubby had his in June or July -- not quite sure when exactly and my sister's is on Nov 17th and they also built and moved into a new house this year and so they are having a combined 40th/housewarming BBQ party tomorrow. I just hope I am feeling well enough to go.

Added 21/10 - Am not well enough to go to party. Coughing till I gag and dops are not working for the eyes, I woke with my eyes resembling a melt down from the house of wax this morning. Major pain has gone but tummy still very tender and hurts with the coughing and all I want to do is sleep. Just rang my sister to let her know I can't come ;( Now I feel like I'm letting her down.

While at home today I managed to dope myself up and dull the pain enough to get this challenge done. It is inspired by Michelle Wards digital artwork and I wanted it to have a sort of Halloween feel to it but at the same time still be pretty, sort of. Juxterposing of ideas maybe. DH actually liked it and said it was very gothic looking.

Some of the items in this are things that I have been working in for my next freebie kit so keep a look out for that in the future.

Blogging Camaraderie, Testosterone Overload & Back to Work.

2006-10-10T17:35:00.000+13:00

I'm breaking out the big words this entry.

Anyway .... do you respond with comments to peoples non scrapping entries in their bloggs or are you only ever there to collect the most recent freebie they have on offer or see what their most recently layouts or ideas might be?

I do often respond to the more personal entries in the bloggs especially when I can identify with some struggle that life may have thrown at a person. Its often nice to find out that we are not alone in the word and that many of us do go through the same things and have similar issues to deal with.

Even nicer is when one gets a reply to a comment one has left on someones blog :) It is nice to know that the comment left was read and helped in some small way. They are all real people out there behind the words we read and its nice to get that sense every once in a while. :) Thanks Sally.

On a different note -- I am so so sick of being the only girl in this household. I have run out of books to read for the moment so I don't have anything to escape to my bedroom with to get away from them all. DH, 2 Adolecent boys and a nearly 5 year old with the teenagers teasing and goading the 5 year old and DH just sitting back and letting it all happen. Oh and how many others I wonder have or have had 17 year olds that know everything even to the point of having a medical degree? My 17 year old found out today that he does not qualify as a Dr just yet and that his wrist is broken and that is under no circumstances to take this 3rd cast off untill the real Dr says so. Its oh so hard when Mum is found out to be right.

Because of all this it is with great pleasure that we have all gone back to school yesterday after our spring break. My brain is engaged again and I have to get up of this chair or out of my bedroom escape and actually do something for some people that might appreciate it maybe .... oops but they are all teenagers where I work as well ..... oh drat.

Anyway last week in a moment of being nice my nearly 5 year old, Marc did this little drawing, he loves drawing and it going to be better than his older brother and mother some day I think.

This is his rendition of his favourite TV show characters. Can you work out who this little team of friends are? Hehehehe.

I might do something scrappy with this eventually. I love working with kids drawings like this.

The world through a 4 year old's eyes

2006-10-03T13:05:00.000+13:00

Our 4 year old, Marc has been playing with our old film cameras around the house for some time and has been dying to take some real photos. So I hunted out the battery charger for my old digital camera and we went for a walk.

I was on the look out for textures with which to use in making more scrapbooking papers and while I was doing my thing he was busy doing his own looking.

No prompting at all for these shots he has taken.

The first one he said "mummy I'm going to take a photo of inside the concrete mixer" Back at the computer we converted it to B&W at his direction.

The next one no prompting either other than to say "you can take photos of what every you like" We did the colour editing together once at the computer.

It would be great to take him where there are crowds of people and see what he comes up with.

Back to the school work now I'm afraid. Don't even have time just yet to check out those textures I got. :S

Dragonfly Dream

2006-10-01T20:35:00.000+13:00

You hail from Dream-land, Dragon-fly? A stranger hither? So am I, And (sooth to say) I wonder why We either of us came!- - - Agnes M.F.R. Darmesteter "To a Dragon-fly"

I can see how the big designers do get stuck naming their kits from time to time. This one was not so easy

I was really stuck for a name here as well and so I went and did a little search and the above poem inspired the name of this collection of bits and peices.

With some motivational prompting from those of you that expressed a desire to get your scrapping hands on my dragonfly and hollyhock inspired collection, I have been able to get on with it and so I have much pleasure in offering this kit to anyone would like it.

In it there are

4 textured papers
2 paper shapes -- hearts
2 tags
2 threads
2 dragonfly stamps -- one fancy and one plain, plain one not shown on preview.
1 sketched frame
1 line art
1 brushed edge semi transparent overlay

I don't think I have missed anything there LOL if I have then its a bonus for you ;)

I would really love to here from you if you download this so please leave a comment for me and even better I would love to see anything that you might do with it so any time in the future when you have done something please come on back and leave me a note and link so I can go see what you have done. That would be awesome and encourages me to make more of this sort of thing. I already have two or three other projects underway ;)

Download is now closed

I would love to see what some of you have done with this. Hint Hint

Ok now I really do have to do some school work that I have been procrastinating over. Its no where near as fun as doing this sort of stuff tho LOL.

Ahhhhh I'v been tagged

2006-09-30T13:07:00.000+13:00

Ok so I have been tagged by Robyn She a co-ordinator of the Heritage and Altered Art Challenges at Scrapartist.com and is also on managment at DigitalArtQuirks
I have been told this is an easy tag and it is just trying to find the 5 people to tag is the challenge for me. Ok here are the rules.

List 5 Weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don’t forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

I am tagging Kellie (Marmy), Neenee (Krazy Krafty Lady), Dianne Rigdon, Wheezie and Josie (IOD) I sure hope some of these people don't mind me tagging them.

Ok now my 5 things about myself or pets

I learnt the violin and piano as a child and can't play a note now.
I have a albino skin patch on a part of my body that hardly ever sees the light of day.
I have never had a vacination of any sort in my whole life.
Our cat only has 3 legs due to an accident which involved a motor vehicle of some sort.
We have a peacock that has addopted us as its pet owners and calls by the front door twice daily for a feed of grain or cat biscuits.

Broken Bones & Empty Buckets

2006-09-29T22:37:00.000+13:00

Seems it is the year of the broken bones for my eldest. He has only been 6 weeks out of his cast for the broken ankle from playing rugby and now he has a cast for a broken Scaphoid Bone in his wrist. Not rugby this time but skateboarding. This is the diagram the Doctor did to explain what he has done.

This bone is difficult to X-ray as it is hidden by so many other small bones and is often missed if it is broken so it is being treated as if it is broken. This also because the bone only has the one blood surply and if not treated correctly the other half of the broken bone can die and to put it in the Doctors terms "creates a dogs breakfast to fix" It can be X-rayed and diagnosed correctly if the bone is given time to start healing and then the calcifications of the healing bones show up.

So its a visit to the city again next week for more X-rays. They will be getting to know us down there by now.

The empty bucket thing seemed a lot more relevant lastnight as it was Nicks first night away for the new honey season and when I am on my own I start to miss everyone that is dear to me and then ......... well ........ I just got to feeling like with everything that I always seem to love others and don't get a lot in return weather it be my kids -- teenagers are so self centered -- or friends far away and I just found my thoughts likening this too trying to fill a bucket that has a hole in it. There is never anything there to get back when one needs it the most. Sometimes I just need to know that I am as important to those others as they all are to me but then sometimes I wonder, I really do wonder.

Anyway Nick is home tonight --- not that the mood in this house is all that much better with one teenager threatening to belt the other with his cast and the retaliations of that slanging match.

The bucket is empty!

Evening Meadows Additions

2006-09-29T15:26:00.000+13:00

Ok so I had all these bits and peices left lying about after I did the stuff for my entry at Scrapartist for the Apprentice challenge and so I thought I would put them altogether and share them.

In this additions kit there are

2 Additional Papers

3 Paper Butterfly Shapes

2 Transparent Tags

2 Threads

2 Stamps -- 1 is a woodblock frame & 1 is a sketch with text.

1 Word Art

Download is now closed at this location but is still avaliable at Scrapartist Member Freebies.

Please leave a comment if you download it and definitly let me know if it is not working or there are any other problems.

Trying to remain positive

2006-09-28T13:34:00.000+13:00

It took me a long time to decide to enter this competition/challenge and now I'm not so sure I should have.

This is avaliable for download HERE at ScrapArtist.com if anyone wants it as well. It will be there untill the end of the competition or untill ScrapArtist management decide to take them down.

It would be nice to know what one has done wrong, what it was that precluded one from getting to the next round, other than ones design not falling into the normal accepted range of stuff for scrapbooking and being somewhat alternative and outside of the box maybe.

Right now I have a lot of negativity going through my head and some of it quite bitchy negativity so I am trying to over-ride this prevading feeling and mood with some posititivity although all of this is not doing much for the motivation I was trying to find.

Positives

I know I have what it takes -- I graduated 2nd in my degree class in Textile Design which is more than most that are designing and selling their stuff online. I just don't have the finacial where with all to get started selling stuff online and it seems one needs to work within a group for this to happen.
At least I am not tied to the restrictions that would have been placed on my stuff had I got anywhere in that competition and when I figure it out I can offer my stuff where ever and how ever I like rather than being dictated to by others. I'm not that fond of being controled by others LOL as my friends will attest to LOL ;)
I do have a lot on file that I have been working on and it will be avaliable for download at some point in time and it will be THE BEST!

Well I have some real work to get on with now and have to write up a new unit and do exemplars for next term at school. Thank goodness for having a REAL JOB! ;)

One Day Maybe

2006-09-17T16:56:00.000+13:00

I might find the enthusiasum to redo the papers that I had intended doing and giving away but ture to form if I don't get it right the first time I seem to loose interest. This is one reason why I have not bothered to enter any enticing offers of competitions to be involved in making papers for money or anything of that sort. I am just not that committed to it I guess. Sigh. Ok well thats all my excuses anyway.

This week seemed to be fraught with teenage angst and issues. One needs to learn to keep details of his parents intermit personal relastionship, to himself. The other needs to learn that this house does not dance to his tune and that he does not make the rules and that disobedience has consequenses. He however beleives that mum just found an excuse to not let him do something he desperatly wanted to do and no amount of discussion will shift that perception.

The youngest needs to learn the meaning of NO and how to accept it as that without throwing a hissy fit or the broom or the golf clubs or the small magnetic balls his gandmother gave him for his birthday. I doubt he will understand this untill one of these items goes through the TV screen and he can no longer watch Higgly Town Heros or the Wiggles.

Other people just need to realise that ya don't stab a friend in the back and expect to remain friends and ya don't turn a friend asking a friend for a favour into a business arrangement and hit them will a bill after no prior discussion on the change they have made in their head regarding those arrangements.

On a lighter note Marc drew this in Church this morning. He was the best boy ever today and didn't try and run up and down the asile like he usually does.

Its also the last week of our 3rd school term for the year and next weekend I will be on Spring Break -- yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Apt Discriptions

2006-09-10T06:31:00.000+13:00

Attention Seeking
Thrives on confrontation
Obsesive
Overbearing
Manipulative
Bully
Paranoid
Untrustworthy
Compuslive

Scrapbooking Paper & Elements offer

2006-09-05T18:12:00.001+13:00

I have just done this for a challenge at ScrapArtists.com and was wondering if anyone would be interested in any of the papers and or elements that I created to make it?

I'm not sure how to put them into my blog for download however but if anyone is interested then I can find out.

This has been inspired by Christen Adolph

Updated 26 Sept 06

There was no interest in this and so I am leaving them on hold for the mean time.

I need to get more traffic to my blog before this will work I fear.

Update 01 Oct 06 --- Ok I am going to work on this one and see if I can get those papers done at the right size. Will let people know when it is avaliable.

Sometimes I need my own space

2006-09-01T22:08:00.000+13:00

Living with a houseful of males is getting a bit much for me these days. This house is way to small for 2 adolesent males and a toddler that is increasingly wanting his voice heard. The place is always a tip and I always seem to be the only one that does anything about it weather that is to bitch to get them to pick up after themselves or me tossing it all in their corner of this box we call a house.

Right now I have had it to the point that I don't even want to be in the same room as them while they fight amongst themselves and pretent to listen to their Friday night rugby on the TV. I wonder if any of them will try to log onto the net on the PC out in the lounge cause I have resorted to plugging the laptop into the other phone line in the bedroom to get some peice and quiet while online.

Sometimes I wish we lived closer to other people or at least in town so that at times like this I could go down the road, on foot so it wouldn't matter what state I got myself in cause I woudn't have to drive home, I could just stagger.

I am so bored with being the only female in this house, I'm so tired of the testosterone overload in my immediate vacinity.

Surprises

2006-08-27T21:56:00.000+13:00

Nice things when they are least expected are very good surprises the sort that make ya heart all warm and fuzzy.
My best friend gave me back something today and in doing so made me cry.
He played it down and said he didn't care and that it didn't matter anymore but I'm guessing that is a guy thing.

Doing the rounds

2006-08-26T13:45:00.000+13:00

Doing the rounds at our house is a nasty cough cold. Marc has had it for over a week now and it is wearing us down with his night time coughing.

On Wednesday evening last week I surcomed to it as well and came down with a nasty sore throat and on Thursday I came home sick from school. Cause I had to mind Marc as well I couldn't just go to bed so worked on this to take my mind off how I was feeling.

It settled for a while then but lastnight it went to my chest and I feel horrible again today. As well as this Marc's has still not shown any signs of getting better so I have had both of us to the Doctor this morning.

Everyone else is home today with it being Saturday so I think I might just go to bed or curl up on the couch by the fire for a while.

The weekly grind

2006-08-18T20:43:00.000+13:00

There is a cafe in Christchurch called The Daily Grind but they refer to coffee, my weekly grind is just plan drudge, sigh ......

anyway .....

... to finish the week it seems we have a not so well 4 year old. He has developed a cold over the last week and seems a little feverish tonight so we have let him go to sleep on the couch. I don't seem to be able to muster much enthusiasm or motivation for anything much since we got back from our trip away ... I hope its just a part of readjusting etc.

Since being away I have taken to reading a lot more and am now on my 3rd book since the 5 hour stop over in LA on the homewood leg via Hawaii. I bought a book in the US called "The Quilters Daughter" and is based around an Amish family and how they cope with events of their lives. In Hawaii on the way through the airport as we where leaving there I got "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Seabold. I wanted to read this one because Peter Jackson is working on this as his next movie. I am now reading a book recommended to me by one of our English teachers at school. It is called "My Sisters Keeper"

Seems I am drawn to stories that allow me to legitimise the water works and give me an excuse for my crying. Usually these tears are for things that I can't adequately explain as I have no justification for them ... like tears for those whom I miss or that which I can not have or for things that can never be and nor should they ever be. I often find my mind wandering to contemplating what things would have been like had I been in a different place at particular times in my life. There really is no point but ones mind does these things to us sometimes I guess. At least reading a sad story allows me a release.

On a better note a very special person reached one of life’s milestones this week with a major birthday. I'm pretty sure it was 21 that she turned .... again ;)

It was nice to hear your voice again Amy but I do wish we could have been there for this birthday. I do hope you had a good day ... your absence in the group might suggest you had some things to do for the day and I hope Duane treated you to something special for the day. I do miss the both of you very much and do wish every day that we where all geographically closer.

Missing you guys is part of why I'm down I know it is.

Today I'm able to wear lighter clothes again

2006-08-12T12:00:00.000+13:00

The sun is out and has been since way before I got up this morning.
Although I have not been outside yet I am able to put on shorts and a t-shirt I bought while away.

I do have a lot I have to do today. A lot I need to do and do want to do but don't have a lot of motivation to do.

The house has become a tip again since our return, I wish I could afford a housekeeper on a regular basis.

Anyway as I do all these chores I find myself thinking of people both friends and family and some of the things I would like to say to them. Everything always sounds so clear in my head and I am wondering if I should try strapping a tape recorder to me and verbalising these things cause if I try or even think of trying to put them into written or verbal words to the actual people concerned I never can find the right words again .... they are there but lost.

Now the dust from the bed I just stripped down has got me sneezing uncontrolably.

At least the sun is out that is a plus.

Some realisations I have come too

2006-08-06T17:41:00.000+13:00

I guess I have been on the internet in one way or another for a long time now.
I have some people that I would call friends that where there right at the beginning and some others that are more recent aquiantences.

People all seem to have varied and different reasons for being online and some of the reasons change over time as well.

I know my main reason is the friendships I have formed and for the most part the other things I have gotten into online have been and gone or at least I know my interest in them will wain eventually.

I have been a manager with an online friend of a msn group, that was a tumoltious time and the honor I was afforded with this was eventually taken from me. In spite of this the friendship endured ... well I think it has.

I have managed my own msn groups both general groups and digital arty type groups. This is not quite the same when your doing it on your own without the enthuisastic encouragement from a close friend and the motivation is not quite there the same even if it is active with others participating.

I think everyone at one point or another needs to gain quedos from others online from the things we are able to achieve with what ever digital program we choose to get into and work with. I know I have gained all the warm fuzzys from making tags or scrapbook pages that others go WOW and ooooohhhh and ahhhhhhhhhh over.

I have had the warm fuzzy's from the experience of being asked to help manage and organise activities or do page backgrounds at other groups and or forums and have long since realised that this is not what I really want or need from my time on the internet.

Through all of this it is the frienships that I have formed along the way that are the most important to me. A kind word and some thoughtfulness or even a WOW that is cool, from someone who is dear to me seems now to hold more weight than anything else that has ever gone before hand.

I'm now needing to be patient while those friends catch up and get through what they need from the making of tags, the posting of pictures and all the rest of what it is they are doing so we can all just get on with being friends ... real good basic down to earth honest to God friends rather than the vaguries of passing on the internet type friends.

I hope I'm still around when that happens.

Its not the best photo but its the only photo of all of us and its the people that are most important to me not how the photo makes them look.

This one is a better picture I guess but then I didn't take it.

Wow

2006-08-03T13:32:00.000+13:00

Nearly a whole month with no posting .... ahhhhhhhhhh well must mean I was busy and having a good time I guess huh?

Anyway we are home from our month in the US and Hawaii now and I'm back at school/work and am finding myself at a bit of a loose end. I was so busy preparing work and organising the household before we went away that it all seems a bit of a downer now with very little busy stuff to do.

The kids all where pleased to see us back and have missed both my cooking and the frequent times we eat out ... they have gone for a whole month without any "take aways" what so ever and they are hanging out for some Subway I think. Thats the thing I guess when I am working I don't always have time to do the meals as often as I like and so we do tend to eat out a bit where as the help that was at hand while we where away chose to go over the top with the housework and food prep a bit I think. Even to the extent of making issues of things that we would never make a big deal off.

Teenagers do watch violent movies from time to time and besides does one really put the Matrix and Lord of the Rings into the regular voilence catagorie?
Teenagers do listen to agressive music .... its apart of their culture and fits with the huge changes going on in their lives .... doesn't mean they are not going to appreciate some of the finer things in life later on once their hormones have settled down a bit LOL.
Boys will be boys and if they want to live in a squalla in their bedrooms then for the most part let them go for it especially if they say they will deal with their own stuff ... I say Keep out of their space!

Slaving in the house is not my idea of coping with family and family issues.

I never asked anyone to be obsessive, paranoid or over the top with minding my kids.

Next time they can mind themselves maybe.

The fancey food show we attended was a great success and a lot of fun.

First Stop On US Visit

2006-07-04T11:26:00.000+13:00

Ok so I have not done an entry here for so so long but I have a good reason. We have been so busy getting ready for your trip to the US. Now we are here and I can relax a bit and catch up.

Our first port of call was LA. We only had a night there and where very tired from the trip but we just had to take the oppotunity to do something while there that we can later say "We went there and did that" so tired and all that we where we booked a night time tour of Hollywood. This tour took in Universal Studios or at least a walk along the City Walk part outside the gates, no time to do any of the other stuff with just being there for the night, the tour also took us to the Hollywood walk of fame with the stars on the sidewalk and the hand prints of the stars on the pavement outside the Chinese Theater. We then went on down Sunset Strip at night just as it was hotting up -- only drove down there and then to Rodao Drive at night. All these expesive shops where shut up for the night but we got to have a little walk up and down the street to put our finger marks on their windows.

Nick was not well in the last leg of the long flight from NZ but seemed ok to do the tour of Hollywood but I think the heat got to him as he was not at all well in the night with some sort of fever it seems. We did also have some stressfull time waiting in line to get our bording passes for the flight to Philly and for a while thought we might actually miss our flight at 8.35am inspite of being up at 5.30am. But we made it and we are here now. Pennsylvania put on a spectacular thunder and lightening show for us that we had to drive through to get to Duane and Amy's place in Wilkes Barre.

We have just basically been taking it easy and resting up today and catching up on some sleep an bit and getting use to the change of seasons and the muggy heat here. More thunder and lightening expected tonight. Oh I got woken by the wiff of skunk in the middle of the night as well, Nick missed it as he slept right through it.

I don't know why but I don't seem able to post any pictures so will add them later.

Chicken Pops & Broken Ankles

2006-06-18T23:16:00.000+13:00

An eventful week health wise for this household.

The wee guy has been home from day care all week with "Chicken Pops" or so he calls them.
I knew he had been exposed to them at a birthday party he went to and so was looking for them.
The whole birthday party gang came down with them including the poor wee birthday boy who was also about to move with his family to Australia to live.

We really only had two nights that were not so nice with this childhood illness and that was as he went through the clingy part and wouldn't sleep in his own bed and insisted that one of us sleep on the floor in the lounge room with him.

He can go back to day care tomorrow.

But now we have the eldest at home with a broken ankle and his leg in a cast as a result of playing rugby on Saturday. We all thought it was just a bad sprain but we decided he needed to go to the Dr just so that it got logged for ACC (accident compensation) just in case there where problems further down the track that could be linked back to the injury. The Dr was not sure if it was anything more than a sprain either as he was able to walk on it slightly but she sent him for an X-ray anyway and it is definitly broken. He has a tempory cast on it now and crutches and has to go back on Wed to get a more perminate waterproof cast on it.

There is a difference of opinion in the household as to the convenience of this injury with us, that is DH and myself going away for a month shortly. We feel kind of relieved as it means the person minding the kids doesn't have to worry to much about where this one will be at cause he aint going anywhere much for 6 weeks according to the Dr. He can't play rugby so no more chance of him getting hurt in our absense there, he can't ride his motorbike so no chance of him taking off and or getting hurt that way either. He was booked to do his restricted licence for both the car and motorbike while we where away but will have to rebook that now as well -- so we don't have to worry about him using the car in our absense either -- oh buggar ;)

He on the other hand is really annoyed that he can't do all these things and the cast is already itching him like nothing else. He is going to be doing his fare share of whinning in the next 6 weeks I think ..... we won't be bothered by it tho ;)

Ok so I was going to put in a pic of the "Chicken Pops" boy but this outfit won't let me post pictures again. Maybe I seriously need to look at a new blogging option when I get home from this trip.

Trash To Fashion Event

2006-06-18T01:00:00.000+13:00

This event has been held over the last two nights here in our town and these are some of the entries. I will do some as scrapbook pages at a later date and I will be using something from the photos I got to do the poster for the next event which is not untill 2008 now.

I hope these pictures post ok tonight.

Looks like they are going to ok so will try putting the rest up

This first set of pictures at the left is the same model as is in the poster I did to promote this show this year.

Difficulty Posting & Busy Weekends

2006-06-11T19:28:00.000+13:00

Seems I can only post a picture right now by using my photobucket account and using the html option with tags in my message posting to get my pictures to show at the moment. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . Check HERE for the issues Blogger seems to be having at the moment.

Anyway ........... on a better note ......

Among other things I seem to be thinking more clearly with my scrapbooking again. Got a block there for a little while.

Next weekend we have the annual "Trash to Fashion" show here in town which is run as a fund raiser by the ladies branch of the Lions Club. Usually I have students entered in this event as a part of their school design projects but I don't have any seniors at that level this year. I know some of my past students are entering again this year however. Also either the students or I do the poster for the promotion of the next years event. Below is the poster and a scrapbook page based on the same outfit.

Oh WOW do I have a thing for Purple and Green or what :S -- my excuse for this one was these where the colours in the garment anyway. The purple has been gained from reflection in the aluminum on the can.

On another completely different note -- my youngest seems to have found a mate with Chicken Pox to cuddle up too :S . I knew he had been exposed to the Chicken Pox and so was looking for them and low and behold Friday morning they started putting in an appearnce. He has a good does appearing over his back and little butt and is going to have some pain issues shortly with sitting down and tending to toileting issues I think. As yet he doesn't have to many on his face but they are beginning to appear there as well. He has been so good and is patting them instead of itching and apart from that he really doesn't seem ill at all, maybe just a little grumpy the day before the spots came out.

I have also just today managed to make use of a couple of photos of my grandparents that I have been saving and have done this layout.

I seem to be on a roll and am getting a lot done right now. Also managed to get my bedroom cleaned out yesterday. My eldest son, who seems to have become a tidy freak in his own room WOW oh yes at last someone tidy in our house .... anyway he reckoned it must be a record for our room as he reckons I woudn't have cleaned it for about a year. DH is in there now just finishing getting all the spider webs from the high points I can't reach LOL.

I also managed to do some major planning for school for while I am away in July as well and actually did all that on Friday night -- still have to write it up as a lesson plan for the teachers that will be taking my classes but at least I know what I am doing now and have sorted the resorces that need to go with the work.

Oh and that handbag sale on "Trade Me" last week ..... the successful bidder has failed to pay for the hangbag and so the seller is going to have to take them to court to get her money.

Stupid login is not letting me view my post and then come back to edit via the Blogger Home page. Only way I can get back here is to hit the back button. Stupid outfit. If they keep this up I might just go find somewhere else to host my blog.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Football Hooliganism & Handbags

2006-06-05T11:20:00.000+13:00

Well here in New Zealand football = Rugby.

The latest accessory for our national sporting team -- A handbag.

The handbag welding ex All Black captain has really bought a new dimension to rugby hooliganism here in NZ in the past week.

The handbag in question just sold on Trade Me (NZ's equivalent of Ebay) for $22 750.00

Check the Story out HERE and HERE there are other links HERE AS WELL

I can just picture it now at the next major rugby fixture here in NZ as people start welding handbags as a defence in the crowded gradestand.

How many handbag companies I wonder have contacted Tana Umaga with a view to getting his endorcement for their latest line of fashion accessories.

How many young ladies will be taking their cheap little handbags along to the local nightspots in the towns and cities where these teams are playing in the hope that they too might get their handbag used in such a manner.

The Jolly Poacher bar in Christchurch could even change their name to "Swing on In" with a signature cocktail on offer called "The Tana Sling" or maybe "Handbag Sling" What would be in it I wonder -- something that might make one cry no doubt so long as it doesn't cost $22.000

The Hurrican's chant could now change to "Swing low sweet Roxy"

I could go on and on as DH keeps laughing and adding more thoughts to the hillarity in our house that this has caused. No doubt there is a heap more in other households around the country as well.

Not well today

2006-06-04T23:38:00.000+13:00

I woke up this morning like I had been out on an all night bender. Only problem was I hadn't had a single drop to drink. Headache, nausea, dry mouth and just generally feeling yuuuuuuuuuuukkkkk. Headache just wouldn't go away and although I really didn't want to take anything for it cause I could feel that my liver was already struggling with something and I didn't want to bombard it with pain killers to deal with as well, eventually I gave in and had to take something. I stayed home from church and went back to bed once the pain meds kicked in and wouldn't you know it DH just had to call and see if I was ok and right just as I had dropped off to sleep.

The headache returned this evening. I am pretty sure it might be something I ate. I should know that there are certain things I am sensitive too. Peanut butter for one and I had two teaspoons of the stuff right from the jar yesterday, a particular brand of packaged baking and buscuits tends to upset me as well and the other thing it could have been was the smoked chicken I bought and ate yesterday -- it was a different brand than I usually get and besides that they are really so not good for ya anyway with all the chemicals that are in them. Or it could have been the sausages I used for dinner lastnight -- the supermarket I got them from has had a reputation for making me sick with their meat products but it is usually their fresh chicken that does it and once again it is more the chemicals they use to clean down the benches with that I react too.

Hopefully will be feeling better tomorrow but damnit I didn't really need to be sick on a long weekend. I could have gotten so much done and we only have 3 weekends at home to get some stuff sorted before we head off to the US.

Kids say the darndest things

2006-06-03T00:23:00.000+13:00

We went to the city yesterday on a few errands and had to take the 4 and a half year old with us as my mum and dad also had to go to the city and so there was nobody home to mind him.

Thankfully the jobs we had to do and the meeting we had to attend where all quick and short.
We did however get the inevitiable "Mummy are we there yet" and only half and hour into the two hour trip as well. LOL. I started answering it by saying "does it look like we are there yet?" at which point I realised it was a game for him as he decided that inspite of us still driving through farm land etc that we where in the city and precociously said "Yes we are there"

Anyway at one point he must have gotten sick of asking such inane questions as we got a real good one. The sort of question one might send into readers digest or something LOL.

"Mummy when I was still in your tummy did you know that I was a boy?" Remember this is a 4 year old. To which I replied "Actually yes I did because I had a scan and in that scan we could see your little penis" and his next question just about had us in stiches. He replied to my statement about the scan with "did it have a sign on it?"

I tell you what, there is no way on this earth that he is going to escape that one at his 21st or somewhere else along the journey through his life. LOL. Nick keeps a diary and its going in there for sure.

Anyway there have been a few at the scrapbooking forum that I belong to that didn't realise I had kids even so tonight I have been working on this layout with all 3 boys in it. A then and now one and got them all to pose for the "Now" shot lastnight.

Don't ya just love that curl in the middle of Ezra's forehead.

Its a long weekend here this weekend -- the Queen has a birthday but once a year, not right this weekend but we get to have Monday off in her honor.

We also have less than a month to go before we head off on our big adventure to NYC.

Scrapping Kids

2006-05-30T19:53:00.000+13:00

Scapping in more ways than one.

Teenage scraps/fights and scrapbooking of our toddler.

I think I might have to stop calling Marc a toddler soon, not sure that he even fits that catagroy at all anymore. What does one call a 4 1/2 year old?

Anyway the 14 year old has been upto some nonsence involving a girl whom he is friends with -- just friends so we, that is both sets of parents, are being told. Anyway without going into details cause he is embarassed enough ..... it has come back to bite him figuritively in the a*** and a jealous wanabe boyfriend decided it was his place to thump our boy and decided that the appropriate place was at his place of employment after school. Needless to say this other boy who is 2 years older has been delivered a non tresspass order and is not allowed to set foot in the local supermarket for 2 years. I am extremely releived to know that our boy has, over the last 6 months finally developed a conscience and was very distraught at his own behaviour with all of this and has taken it upon himself to appologise to some people he wronged along the way. Typical teenage stuff and at least we know he is normal and I am pretty sure now he is actually going to grow up and be a nice careing young man.

Ok now the other scrapping stuff is much more pleasant. LOL. I don't often scap things about my kids. I know most other people do and this is the reason that a lot of people do scrapbooking but for some reason, I dunno maybe it is because I have all boys and I like doing girly stuff, but for some reason I just don't do much scrapping of my kids.

Anyway this peice was for a challenge that required the use of hands and I had scanned and saved these butterfly hand prints of Marc's quite some time ago. I love doing things with artwork of theirs and not just using a photo and other peoples papers etc so this oppotunity allowed me to include Marc in it.

Its Incredible

2006-05-25T00:23:00.000+13:00

Its incredible how exhausting emotional stress can be. I am so so physically tired tonight and we didn't even have any kids at school today as we had a teacher only training day for our new school file management system and also to learn how to use the new smart white boards they have put in some classrooms. Anyway ..... sigh ..... emotional stress with no kids there hummmmmmm yes well lets just say some "colleagues" seem to end up being part of the problem with kids more than contribute to the solutions like they are meant to if they are providing good colleageal support. I hate run-ins with other teachers.

Anyway these smart boards are amazing -- a lot like a huge Wacom mounted on the wall that doubles as a huge TV screen as well as a computer monitor. Unfortunately I don't get one in my room due to the fact that not enough students take my subject so it wouldn't get used to its full potential. I live in hope that one day they will be standard government issue like our laptops now are. http://www.smarttech.com/

Washing Machine troubles. Some might recall my washing machine broke down some time back and we had trouble getting a repair person to come fix it inside of 3 weeks. Well the 3 weeks is was well up and the repair man that said he would be here in 3 weeks is now not answering his phone and has turned the answer machine off. However ...... my machine is now going again .... Nick put it on the back of the truck and took it to Christchurch -- the city 2 hours south of us and took it to a same day service shop where it got fixed in about 10 mins at the cost of $75 and the ****** guy here couldn't come and do that? I have a good mind to write a letter to our lacal papers editor and advise everyone in this town that is having trouble getting things repaired to take their stuff out of town if they are able. I bet the motels and cafes don't have the trouble we had getting things fixed, in fact I know they don't cause I used to manage a cafe and this exact same repairman would come immediately even if the microwave broke down. Private individuals will be his bread and butter when all the development in this town dies down ... he needs to consider this and remember that his bread and butter might have gone out of town for service if he doesn't look after them.

Legless man pulls off amazing feat!

2006-05-16T08:51:00.000+13:00

Mark Inglis a New Zealand double amputee got to the summit of Mt Everest yesterday according to his wife who got a brief cell phone call from him from the sumit.

I had some links in an earlier post to some sites about this climb but if anyone is interested this diary site will be undated shortly.

Mark Inglis lost his legs in 1982 due to frost bite in a climbing incident on Mt Cook, New Zealand's hightest peak. He has since reinvented himself and gained a bio chemistry degree and worked in the wine making industry, has got a silver medal in cycling in the para olympics and has more recently been working as a motivational speaker in particular with young people.

He spoke to our students at school last year.

Mothers Day, Travelers & Contests

2006-05-14T22:05:00.000+13:00

Well another week has come to a close. Mothers day has been and gone with this mother suffering from some sort of chest or throat cold, feels like I will lose my voice in the next day or two.

Anyway my neice, who I might add is not a mother, decided to suggest a pot luck lunch for mothers day. I suggested that we might like to have one as well for fathers day and get all the fathers to do the cooking for it like us mothers all had to do today. Anyway inspite of my thoughts on that it was nice to spend the time together. It was also the first time we have all had a family get together at my sisters new house and with her being a first time new mum as well so it was good. We all stuffed ourselves cause as usual there was way too much food.

It was also the last day before my brother and his wife head off to the UK, France and Italy and so was a farewell lunch for them as well. They have decided due to the bad weather coming and the early hour that they have to be at the airport that they will go down tonight and stay over -- the airport is 2 hours away, and so dad has taken them already. Nick and I will not see them again untill we return from our trip to the US as they arrive home while we area away.

Well anyway today after that lunch I decided to go on a search to try and awaken my muse again and got into doing a scrapbook page for a competition. I enjoyed doing it so regardless of if I win or not I still feel like I have achieved something.

The images are all mine although the painting has been developed from a drawing a student did. This is where I get a lot of my inspiration from, my students and what I do as examples and demos for them. The photo is of a senior class of mine last year and the patterns I did for this challenge

Anyway time to get sorted for the coming week. Will see if I get time to come back here during the week.

Primitive Cutouts & Irony

2006-05-06T15:20:00.000+13:00

Ok so maybe these don't really go together but then again maybe they do in a weird sort of way.

Primitive cutouts is one of the MAD (Memory Art Digital) topics at Digital Art Quirks that I belong to and this image that I just found, although not a memory type image is an altered art image with the primitive cutout thing happening with it so I thought I would share it.

It is an illustration for an artical in the May issue of a News Zealand food magazine called "Taste". The article is on allergies and the illustration has been done or rather assembled by Dean Proudfoot.

If anyone is interested in this magazine it also has a feature article on page 120 titled "Grainful Employment" This article is about my brother's flour mill and has photos of both him and my mum in it as well as his cafe and includes a recipe for their famous carrot cake.

Ok now for the "Irony" part of this blog entry. I guess some people just don't get irony cause I posted this at a friends msn website and it went down like a lead balloon, but anyway . . . . . the title was . . . .

New Zealand Climber Breaks Leg on Mt Everest . . . . . . . . and radios up for another one to be delivered so he can continue the climb.

The following links are so that you the reader can work out where the irony is with this. The first link is where my husband read about this climbers leg being broken. See HERE and check out the April 29th diary entry.

The irony part of this can be found at this link HERE where it tells of how this man lost his legs in the first place.

This is one amazing man, to get back up and face what it was that took his legs in the first place and to aim for greater hights (pardon the pun) even than most able bodied men & women. I know Mark Inglis has more courage and guts in life than the majority and definitly more life than those of us that might struggle to get off the couch with two good legs even. And some people wonder why I am then irritated by other's attitudes!

Phewwwwww What a day

2006-04-29T23:12:00.000+13:00

The washing machine is still not going but the dryer is no longer squeeking, its still raining and I'm struggling to get any laundry dry. The clothesline is full of laundry that was not dry enough to bring in after I did put it out but now it is as wet again as it was when I put it out. No point in doing any more laundry untill I get the current lot dry.

I did another 30mins on the rower this morning and then seemed to have the energy to do heaps of jobs around the house after that -- cleaning jobs so I didn't have a shower till I was done. Cleaned on top of the old spare fridge in the laundry and on top of the dryer before Nick got at it to fix it. Cleaned out the pantry as I did the dishes. Got rid of some old cracked cups that the kids just put in there and that end up taking up space. Got enthusiastic in the kitchen then so after the shower I got on with cooking to use up some stuff in the fridge and freezer. As a result the kids got a baked dessert tonight with custard .... wouldn't you know it ... I never do desserts or very rarely and tonight when I did do one it has hardly been touched ... go figure. I also made some of my hummus again that I did a srapped receipe page of a few weeks back. We hosted the kids youth group here tonight and so they got a healthy snack of vege sticks and crackers with the hummus along with their chocolate cookies. I have also managed to almost complete an update of my schemes for each year level which has to be handed in on Wednesday at school.

My knees and tops of my thighs are sore tonight as well as the backs of my upper arms, I guess the rowing is meant to do that and Nick is telling me to do just an easy 15mins tomorrow rather than the full 30mins. It was rather hard to do the 30mins today.

We have had a week of rain I am so so sick of it now. Whats the bet it will come right when we go back to school.

I need to get my head around school work again so am posting this to remind me of where my head needs to be at. This is a plan I did as an example of how my year 10 students need to use composition and colour in some illustrations they are painting. They had to finishe their paintings in the holidays. I wish I had time to paint mine. This is done with coloured pencil.

Visual Inspirations

2006-04-28T23:23:00.001+13:00

I was just doing a search through my files on my system tonight -- was trying to find some photos I took a long time ago for use at school. I found some but not the ones I wanted cause the kids got in on the act and saw some photos of themselves from a few years ago and so wanted me to go through all the family albums to see how much they had changed. My older boys don't often show any interest in what I am doing so it was rather nice to actually have them over my shoulder for a little bit and us all laughing together -- is a better end to a not so crash hot day (see previous post)

But anyway I dirgress, in my search I found some images that I had saved as inspirational images and wanted to share this one here.

If anyone wants to use it as inspriation for a scrap page then your welcome and I would love to see what you do so please do come use my comments area to give me a link to where you post what you do.

Not so crash hot day

2006-04-28T17:20:00.000+13:00

Don't ya just hate those sort of days where everything just seems to crowd in on you all at the same time.

I just have so much to do so instead I am here posting in my blog, is this avoidance or what?

Company website issues -- First up we got a contract to sign for our company website we are getting done today but they have spelt the name of our company wrong all the way through it so that needs correction if they want it to be legally binding. Secondly the wording of the contract does not suit what we require in places. Thirdly I am going to be doing some of the graphics for it but the intial contact was not able to help me with the details of what I need to know for this -- this last one is resolved now with it being passed to the project manager and out of the account managers hands.
I have to start peparing for going back to work -- school -- on Monday and I need some time to get my head around that as well as I found out I have to have all my schemes up to date and handed in to the deputy principal by Wed of next week. When am I meant to find the time to prepare lessons huh? sheeeeeesh.
The washing machine is screaming at us saying it needs servicing with a code 37 and it won't spin or empty. The one serviceman we have in this town is to busy and can't get to us for 3 weeks and the other nearest servicemen would be either an hour and a half away or two hours away. The dryer is also screaming with a squiky noise and its raining like we might need an ark.

Washing machine issues or maybe its just stress has resulted in some rather ill feeling in the house while the middle teen sits on his A** and yells at me to shut up.

On a brighter note -- I did manage to do half an hour again on the rower this morning.

Exercise

2006-04-27T12:32:00.000+13:00

This is not something that comes easy to me but that is desperatly needed. I have tried walking but the weather and other obligations that often mean there is not enough daylight left once all else is done kind of puts a bit of a dampener on the walking sometimes. I'm also not a morning person so trying to get up at 6am to go for a walk is not really going to happen.

My husband always has difficulty knowing what to get me for my birthday so back in Jan when it was my birthday I asked him if he could get me some sort of exercise device that I can do any time of the day or night, come rain hail or shine.

I used to have a horse and horse riding was wonderful exercise cause I never really felt like it was exercise at all but it really is very good. The holding on with ones legs is good for the inner thighs and belly, the jiggling up and down shakes it off the butt and other places, using ones arms to control the animal works the upper arm flab off and going hard out on the beach actually makes the rider puff as well as the horse.

I requested a rowing machine to have at home cause this does at least 3 of those things -- it doesn't do the jiggling so will have to find something else to do that part.

Anyway today I managed to actually do half an hour on the rowing machine -- this is my best effort to date and I'm quite prode of it. I have had it for over a month now -- he got it quite late, my birthday was actually in Jan but already I can hold the old tummy in a lot better. :)

I hope I can keep it up.

Oh and just something I had occassion to look up this morning

The difference between Honey Bees and Bumble Bees

My ANZAC tribute

2006-04-26T01:07:00.000+13:00

This is my tribute today to all those that went to war and in particular to those fallen in battle.

My granny always claimed that this well known photo of a soldier on the beach at Gallipoli was my grandad and if it is not then it represents him anyway.

The RSA poppy and the grave plaque and the photo where all collected for a school project of Jesse's back when he was only 11.

I can not read the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae without a lump in my throat and tears welling up. ANZAC never used to do this to me, I think was we grow older these things take on more significance and therefore affect us more. This is a good thing I think, to be affected by such things.

Anyway this has been my effort for today.

Least We Forget

Finally

2006-04-25T15:11:00.000+13:00

I seem to have this sorted and working, cross fingers that this message gets posted

Yahhhhhhhh it did.

Ok now I can go on the look out for more stuff I can add to this.

Seems I messed up some code somewhere

2006-04-24T19:56:00.000+13:00

And this has been preventing my recent posts from showing.
So back to the drawing board.
Good job I have saved parts of it all so that I can just copy and past it in there.
Hummmmm.

Its a good job its school holidays

2006-04-24T17:19:00.000+13:00

I have spent way to much time on this site today!
I keep finding things that I want to use on it and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't or sometimes they mess up the coding for other parts of the template.

Check out the cool clock I found tho. I like it way better than the digital one I did have there. Have left the date part of the other clock tho.

Right now I have hungry teenagers whinning about there being no food in the house. Actually there is heaps of food but it all requires a little effort on their part to make it palitable to their fast food teenage tastes.

Its also not helped by the fact that I am trying to save hard for this up coming trip to the US and so am trying to survive on what is in the pantry and freezer until my next pay comes avalible which is Wed morning.

I want to use my monthly allowence from Nick to start buying some American dollars.

Nobody is going to starve just teenagers always think their throats are cut if they can't have it now!

Ok well I better go make the pudding and custard I just promised my 14 year old for a snack LOL.

Well finally

2006-04-23T21:27:00.000+13:00

Finally I have managed to work out how to put my own header in with this template.
Have also now managed to sort out how to get the width of the whole thing matching the banner/header at the top and also how to put in my own links rather than that standard ones.

Am still sorting all this out as well and will be fiddling around with it for a while yet till I have it the way I want it. Pictures I think can be bigger yet as well.

Will see how this one works out this time.

This is a picture of my sister and her husband with their new baby Charlie. Born on March 24th -- two weeks overdue. Their last name is Prince and so we Charlie is being refered to by some of my sisters friends as Prince Charlie. He is Charlie though not Charles. Middle name is Ivan after my dad. He has two older half brothers and a half sister. He was born on his oldest brothers birthday.

I can't lay claim to having taken this picture tho, one of my sisters empolees took it.

Found this at least

2006-01-06T10:31:00.000+13:00

The means to post pictures hopefully

First Post to this blog

2006-01-05T19:18:00.000+13:00

I have just set this blog up and will see how it goes. See if it has what I hope it has for me.